MMA fighter Michael Kirkham, who made his pro debut this past weekend after 4 amateur fights, today became the second MMA fighter to die as a result of injuries sustained in a pro MMA bout. Kirkham died this morning as a result of injuries sustained from a professional bout this past Saturday at the USC Aiken Convocation Center in South Carolina. Kirkham, 30, suffered repeated blows to the head during an MMA event dubbed "Confrontation at Convocation Center" and collapsed afterward. He was taken unconscious to the Aiken Regional Medical Center, where he died from brain hemorrhaging. An autopsy is expected Tuesday morning.

Wow, I hadn't heard about this until now. The sport certainly doesn't need any undue attention. But (and this may seem a bit cold to say) since this happened on such a small stage I really doubt the sport as a whole will be all that significantly impacted. I'm hoping that the autopsy report reveals that his death was a result of an underlying health problem that was simply missed by the athletic board's doctor. If I'm not mistaken that was the case in the Vasquez death a few years back.

Either way, my condolences to his family and his opponent. I can't imagine he feels great about potentially attributing to the death of an opponent.

Wow, I hadn't heard about this until now. The sport certainly doesn't need any undue attention. But (and this may seem a bit cold to say) since this happened on such a small stage I really doubt the sport as a whole will be all that significantly impacted. I'm hoping that the autopsy report reveals that his death was a result of an underlying health problem that was simply missed by the athletic board's doctor. If I'm not mistaken that was the case in the Vasquez death a few years back.

Either way, my condolences to his family and his opponent. I can't imagine he feels great about potentially attributing to the death of an opponent.

This situation is terrible for the sport, the family and the fans. I dont even know what to say about the whole situation untill we have more information. But, I will say I wouldnt be surprised if he had medical issues before this because on another site I heard he was 6 foot 9 and 155 lbs. That is either a terrible misprint which I would doubt because Sherdog is generally good about staying away from typos. But that just isnt normal. RIP

I agree with what everyone has said so far. Sad story, my prayers are with his family, this sport doesn't need negative attention.

That being said, What kind of pre-fight examinations does South Carolina and this promotion have? Surely not on par with the UFC, or even the B-Level promotions like Strikeforce etc. If a guy wasn't capable of taking that kind of punishment, I'm fairly certain that's the kind of thing that might be discovered in the pre-fight appointments the UFC does. Since it's a more bush league promotion with conditions not comparable to the only promotion that 75% of the country knows exists, the UFC, I doubt this will even be a hinderence to MMA's Growth.

But what i REALLY wanna know..Who the HELL let a guy with a 1-3 AMETURE record turn PRO? This kind of thing is BEGGING to happen if people are stupid enough to send a guy into a gun fight with a water pistol!

Seriously...That's like taking a guy who played around with a bull a few times and throwing him in an arena with a red rag, locking the gate, and expecting him to yell "TORRO! TORRO!" at a rabid bull and NOT get hurt!

That promotion, and probably South Carolina for awhile, will suffer pretty good for this one.

Last edited 6/29/10 2:25AM server time by ChokeUoutEdit note/reason: n/a

Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, people. I did check a couple other articles about this and haven't been able to find anything out about the promotion hosting the event, the fighter he was facing, how the fight ended, and so on. We still need more information besides just the autopsy to put all the pieces together.

Terribly sad and I too will hope that he simply wasn't killed as a result of his fight. I have a millione questions as to how many shots he took before the fight was stopped, what type of shots, how many bouts the ref had done previously, and about the promotion and physical the fighters had to go through. Regardless I feel terrible for the family. It's tragic when athletes die in any sport, it has happened in several sports including boxing, american football (both ncaa and NFL), soccer, professional and college wrestling, ect... It is a harsh reality of contact sports and I hope we can reach a place where the precautions are flawless. I doubt it will hurt the growth of the sport, but I feel terrible for the family.

Very sad. I feel for his family. But he should never have been cleared to fight at 6'9 and 150lbs. That's unhealthy. Think about how Corey Hill looks at 155, and he's only 6'4. You can't expect a human being like that to be able to physically handle a fight.